The One Letter in the Alphabet That Can’t Be Silent

by Michele Debczak

The English language can be baffling at times—just look to words like phlegm, receipt, and chthonic for proof. Silent letters are unavoidable. Almost every word in the alphabet is occasionally guilty of taking up space without contributing anything, but there is one exception. According to Merriam-Webster, V is the only letter in English that consistently makes itself heard.

No matter where it appears, whether it’s in love, voice, or divisive, V plays a vital role. Most letters are phonetic chameleons: That’s why the C sounds different in cat and city, and why the g sounds like nothing at all in gnash. V is unique in that it never goes through an identity crisis.

There are a few letters that rival V‘s special status. Z is only silent in words we borrowed from the French, like chez, laissez-faire, and rendezvous. The one silent J in the entire English language appears in marijuana, a term of Spanish origin. But even accounting for words we’ve adopted from other tongues, there’s not one example of a silent V in the English dictionary.

The prevalence of silent letters is just one frustrating aspect of our language.

This article was adopted for our readers from mentalfloss.com

We handpick interesting, engaging and informative content that we think you will enjoy!